Golden Temple, Vast Space

The golden temple experience at Amritsar, was all about honoring the elements — Water, space, air and earth. Space and water in particular — As we walked around the inner perimeter of the Golden Temple complex, a sea of casual visitors and sincere seekers milled around, basking in the sacred space.

Dipping in the water and making contact with five points in the body — The five point water cleanse (pancha-snan)— Was quite refreshing and sacred.

Cleansing is a recurring theme in life — Indeed, we brush our teeth every day, we shower every day. And what do we do for our mind ? The mind, if you notice is always flitting between the past (regrets, sadness, disappointments, rehashing of good memories) and the future (hope, worry, anxiety, planning, etc). And yet, life happens in the present moment. As we live life, and so we believe, life slips away every moment due to the mental gymnastics of the mind. Being fully in the moment and attending to what’s happening right now requires the mind to be calm and settled. And the beauty of it all, whatever we do in life is to finally arrive at this peace of mind, this happy and settled state of mind — this is what we really seek!

Why do it in a round-about manner? Taking some time each day to do the “mental cleansing” is a direct path to stay in touch with what we really seek in life. Mental cleansing/de-cluttering of the continuous stream of thoughts in the mind becomes easier when we honor our breath (deep breathing) and the space element (meditation).

Jai Gurudev!